I agree with most of this. I agree that a flexible release schedule would be better than any sort of fixed plan. But Sony's going to always have some rough plan for how long the development process will be.

I will say that both Insomniac and ND have both stated that they ran out of time developing their games, though. Sure, they completed the games, but they weren't quite what they wanted them to be.

I agree that games like Killzone 3, Infamous 2 and Resistance 2 could have used more time in the oven.

That's not to say that it shouldn't have been possible for their studios to deliver a better game in 2 years time.

Naughty dog seems fine on a 2 year schedule. But an extra 6 months for people like Guerilla could be awesome.

@ LeatherHat and non-gravity

Yeah, Killzone 3 was my main inspiration for this thread

I think Sony's development time is spot on, I don't time is it really a matter(don't get me wrong, it does) but it's a matter of resources and effort(RolStoppable basically said what I was going to say but better)

no game is going to be perfect and delaying it for more time can impact initial sales andreview scores (mainly GT5) no matter how long you work on a game it's destine to have flaws, I get what your saying;(or atleast I'm close) that these games could be better from the get-go, but hopefully it something that could be solved with a patch/dlc. and you wouldn't want development to get to costly(though I doubt Sony would care)

don't get me wrong, more time wouldn't hurt, also like you plan for the PS4, I could honestly see that hapenning.

I think it wouldn't hurt. I believe the extra year would give all those great games an even greater 'soul' (or whatever you wish to call it) because I think that in a way, it's missing right now.

I think some of their devs (ie. Polyphony) need to be more limited in their dev cycle. They take way too long to make games.

I really think it depends on the developer. Some like Evolution, Media Molecule, Eat Sleep Play (2nd party) and Incognito clearly need more time. While others Like Naughty Dog, Guerrilla Games and Sucker Punch and Santa Monica only need a bit more flexibility sometimes. Kinda agree with Rol. If SONY allows devs that need extra time to get that time required then there's really no problem. With that said, of course SONY has to draw the line somewhere. So perhaps a 2.5 year average and 3 if the devs are looking to build a new engine from the ground up (which is usually the case for moving on to the next system).

EDIT: When I think about it, I honestly think time wasn't that big of an issue for some of these developers. Just look at Team ICO. Their highest selling game has only sold about a million but SONY's fine with allowing those guys 6+ years on the next game. Granted, their games are very massive but I think it shows SONY isn't exactly the strictest publisher around and care about critical success as well as commercial (i'm assuming they get this freedom because of the critical success of past games).

No i'm happy like it is!! You trying to kill me? Damn would never be able to wait 3years for uncharted 3.

Now, with some dev studios a longer dev cycle is probably the answer. But there are better ways, with some like Naughty Dog, which I think is to simply expand the studio. But, you essentially split the studio into 3, teams 1, 2 and 3

So you start with teams 1 doing pre work on game 1, while teams 2 & 3 work on game 2
Then once game 2 is shipped, team 3 change onto game 1, and then team 2 works on game 3

This way, each game actually gets 4 years of development, but they release a game every 2 years, or something like that

As for your plan, however, there are a few issues

1. You don't want Zipper and Guerilla in the same year as they make similar games
2. Zipper apparently is dying due to poor recent games
3. Insomniac are independent and working on other games
4. EatSleepPlay and Lightbox are independent, so have more flexibility
5. Also, there is SCE Liverpool

But anyway, I think the key thing is that they make good games. If they are ready, release them, but 3 years maximum in full development, don't let Polyphony have their way again.

The most important thing is that Zipper, Evolution and GG make better games and more succesful ones really, they have made good/average games, which haven't sold that great

ND is the only studio that is really excelling, with Sucker Punch also doing well on the critics side, but not so much the commercial side